A Day at the White City
by ProcrastinatingPalindrome
Summary: The world's first Ferris Wheel is unveiled at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and America is dying to ride it with England. England is somewhat less excited about it. Slight America/England


America was always full of energy and enthusiasm, but at the moment he was absolutely bursting with it. He kept seizing England's hand to drag him along faster down the gravel streets of the fairground and England had to keep snapping at him to let go.

"Oh, and we should check out the Midway Plaisance later," he rambled as they passed by brilliantly white buildings and rows of flower beds. "It's absolutely huge. Like, you could fit Russia's entire standing army in there and have room to spare."

"And just how many men _are_ in Russia's standing army?"

"Oh, I have no idea. A ton, I imagine. The point is, it's a damn big place and there's enough kiosks and stuff there to make your head spin!"

In truth, England's head was starting to spin already. He had been to world's fairs before (and hosted a few in his day), but this one was just absurdly huge. The place was more like a little city than a fair, and the shear size of the place combined with America listing off every single thing there was to see was making him dizzy.

"And we've got to go see Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show too!" America was saying, unaware of his companion's growing headache. "Well, maybe not today since it's kind of late already, but definitely tomorrow. There are soldiers from all over the world performing there!"

"I know," England said, a little sourly. "I sent a good number of my own men for that silly show."

"Well, so did France and Germany and a bunch of other countries, so I still say it's worth seeing. And it's not silly."

"I can think of a hundred things I'd rather do."

"What are you in such a bad mood for? Oh wait, I forgot. You're _always_ in a bad mood."

"Only when I'm around you," England grumbled under his breath.  
"Alright, you old grouch. I bet I know something fun that'll cheer you up. Remember how I told you we wanted to make something really great for my fair? Something more impressive than the Eiffel Tower?"

America had grabbed his hand again and was dragging him off in a different direction. England was about to tell him for the hundredth time to _stop pulling me around how many times do I have to say it_ when America stopped so suddenly that England almost ran into his back.

"Alright, take a look at _that_," he said, pointing up. "What do you think of that?"

England tilted his head back to look. It was some kind of giant revolving wheel. There were large cars attached...were people supposed to ride on this thing? Apparently so. America had already made his way up to the base of the contraption and was climbing into one of the cars, motioning for England to follow. Against his better judgment, he did, and took a seat opposite the younger country, who was positively glowing.

"Pretty neat, huh? It goes around a great big circle, and you can see for miles from the top! And since it's pretty late and the engineer said it was fine, we get this whole car to ourselves."

England was about to ask just how safe it was to ride in a heavy car to the top of a very unstable looking wheel, but his question was cut off when the car jerked into motion and started to climb. It felt even less safe now that it was moving, but they were already too far to get off. It made a horrible gnashing sound when it was in motion, and England's knees suddenly felt weak.

"You're lucky, we only just finished this thing a little while ago," America said brightly, clearly proud of his giant deathtrap. "Canada and Russia were here last month, we all got to go on the first ride together." He tapped a finger against one of the large glass windows with a smile. "They only just finished putting this thing together at that point, so they didn't have the glass put in the windows yet. Russia kept leaning out the side to get a better look and Canada kept grabbing the back of his shirt so he wouldn't fall out and..." he clapped his hands together loudly. "Splat!" America neglected to mention that Canada had to grab the back of his shirt a few times too, and was rubbing his head and moaning something about having to babysit a couple of big kids when the ride ended. "Well, we are pretty high up, so anything that fell would probably go splat," he added lightly. "And we aren't even to the top yet!"

England swallowed down a wave of nausea and tried to ignore the loud cracking and groaning of metal gears.

"I'm afraid I don't really see the appeal of this big clunky thing," he said, a little less steady than he would have liked.

"Dammit England, why'd you bothered to come all the way out here if you're just going to be a huge grump the whole time? Come on, this is supposed to be _fun_. That's the whole point of this fair!"

"The whole point of this fair," England snapped, "is for you to show off to the world."

America rolled his eyes dramatically. "Well, _yeah_. That's what everyone does when they get to host these things. You think France's fair back in '89 was just about the art and the culture and all that? Hell no, he was saying 'look how great and sophisticated I am,' and all that shit."

"Of course, he's _France_-"

"And what about you, huh? What was that Crystal Palace of yours?" America stood up suddenly in the car, finally losing his temper. "Yeah, you were _really_ humble about all that. You're all a bunch of goddamn hypocrites. Whenever_ I_ make something big and impressive you say it's tacky and gaudy, and whenever _I'm_ proud of something I've accomplished, well then I guess I'm just being a cocky bastard but it's fine for the rest of y-"

"For God's sake, stop moving!"

The raw panic in England's voice brought America's tirade to a screeching halt. "What? What's wrong?"

The color had drained from England's face and his hands clenched the edge of his seat tightly.

"S-stop moving around so much. You're making the car rock," he said faintly, swallowing hard a few times.

America gave him a blank stare. Then, slowly, a wicked smile spread across his face.

"Oooh, so you don't like it when I do _this_?" He rocked heavily from side to side, making the car sway and creak dangerously along with him.

"_Oh God, let me off."_

England didn't realize he had said those words out loud until he noticed America, still swaying back and forth, was looking down at him with a grin that would have put the Cheshire Cat's to shame.

"Let you off _where_, exactly? We're pretty high up. Or did you want to jump?"

England had to clench this teeth together tightly to keep back a very undignified moan. He was starting to feel a little faint. The movement and anxiety wasn't doing any favors for his stomach either. He suddenly deeply regretted eating the caramel popcorn America had bought for him earlier and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Whoa whoa whoa, are you okay? You aren't going to be sick, are you?"

England opened his eyes (when had he closed them?) to see America crouched down on the floor of the car in front of him, his brow furrowed with concern.

"You alright, England? I was just messing around, I wasn't trying to really scare you or make you puke or anything."

England didn't trust his churning stomach enough to open his mouth and settled for shaking his head dismissively. America sighed and climbed into the seat next to him.

"Want me to hold your hand? Would that make you feel better?"

"Don't be absurd," he mumbled. The warmth of the man beside him was more comforting than he ever would have admitted.

"So is that a yes or a no?"

"No!"

"Well don't bite my head off, damn."

They sat in awkward silence as the buildings and people below them got smaller and smaller. England closed his eyes tightly and resolved to stay like that until he was back on the ground, but not ten seconds had passed before America was shaking his arm urgently.

"Alright, fine. Maybe this hasn't been the greatest ride but you've got to look now, England. This is the best part!"

Reluctantly, England opened his eyes. They had reached the top of the wheel and there was a moment of weightlessness, of the feeling of the whole world falling away below him as the descent started. That sensation alone made him feel breathless, and the view itself was practically otherworldly. The evening sky had turned the white buildings a glowing orange, and the land below seemed to spread out forever.

"Feels like you could just fly away, doesn't it?" America whispered, his voice surprisingly soft and reverent.

They were both silent for the rest of the ride, which England thought was a real achievement for America. He kept glancing at the younger country out of the corner of his eye, but America just kept watching the scenery with a small, wistful smile. The peaceful second half of the ride went much faster than the first, and before long they were back at the bottom again. England let out a little sigh of relief as he climbed out of the car. No matter how surprisingly pleasant the end of the ride was, he was glad to have both feet back on the ground.

"Be honest now, England. Wasn't that fun?" America asked as they walked back into the heart of the fairground.

"I'll admit that it wasn't as awful as I expected," he allowed, smiling in spite of himself.

"That's good enough for me," America said with a wink. "Now hurry up, I want to buy some dinner before it gets dark. There's a shop here that's selling this thing called a 'hamburger' and I'm dying to try it!"

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Historical Notes:

And thus America began the long tradition of freaking people out on Ferris Wheels by jumping around a lot (don't tell me you've never done it.)

So, the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The world's fairs are large public exhibitions. One of they key features of them is the national pavilions, where different countries from around the world can set up and show off their stuff (and back in the day when few people could easily travel, it was a change to get to eyeball all those crazy foreigners and their crazy foreign ways.) Naturally, like with the Olympics, the hosting country really tries to put on a good show for the world and make something they can be proud of. There have been a TON of world's fairs over the years, but a few of them (like the Crystal Palace Exhibition in England, and this one) had particular cultural significance. The Chicago World's Fair was a lot bigger and grander than the expos that came before it, and became a symbol of American Exceptionalism, a lot like how the Crystal Palace became a symbol of the Victorian Era in England. It was a great cultural and artistic achievement, and did wonders to improve America's reputation to the world (and it helped Chicago be known as more than that place where a cow kicked over a lantern and almost burnt down the whole city.) Because most of the buildings were painted white, it became known as the White City. The white of the buildings also gave the whole place a really ethereal, dream-like feeling.

There were many new inventions unveiled at the fair (the first zipper, the first automatic dishwasher, first hamburger...) but one of the most memorable was the Ferris Wheel. There was a big push to top the world's fair France held in 1889, which the Eiffel Tower was built for. There was a rallying cry to 'out-Eiffel the Eiffel,' but for a long time no one could come up with anything really impressive...until George W. G. Ferris came up with this huge wheel people could ride on. Initially everyone thought it just looked like a giant metal deathtrap, but after a while Ferris convinced them otherwise. The original Ferris Wheel was 80 meters high and could hold over 2,000 people. Apparently England got over his Ferris Wheel jitters, since the biggest one in Europe at the moment is in London.

Please leave a review, they are _delicious._


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